Earlier in the year we saw Francesca Savige playing the feisty, gun-toting feminist rebel Molly in Queensland Theatre Company's The Female of the Species and she’s about to tread the boards again for QTC as the sweet and innocent Cecily in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Earnest.
Over a cup of tea and scones we get to know Francesca a little better.
How do you go about preparing for two such different roles? Do you identify with one more than the other?
I can easily identify with aspects of both Molly and Cecily. (Unfortunately?!) I think I have some of Molly’s all-consuming passion and misguided idealism, and much of Cecily’s rampant romanticism. I identify with every character I play in some way – I think as actors we have to find what we can bring to the role from within us as well as working from external influences. By relating to or understanding the character (as opposed to judging), I believe we help the audience to empathise and connect to the story. Well, I hope we do. We aim to.
In getting ready to play a role, I like to start to dress like the character (shoes are really important!) – and I find myself naturally accentuating aspects of that character in daily life.
For example, after I had seen Christina Smith’s design for The Female of the Species, I began wearing clothes that Molly would– I began dressing like a university student again! And I became a much moodier person – stomping around like the angry Molly. I actually found it the most challenging process I’ve ever experienced, possibly because it explored a darker side of me that I usually suppress.
With Cecily, I plan to wear pretty frocks and drink sweet tea and eat lots of cake to help me get into character.
What excites you most about this production?
That I’m in it, hee hee!
The Importance of Being Earnest was one of my favourite plays from my school years. I did the ‘tea scene’ from it for a couple of eisteddfods and drama competitions when I was in grade 11. However, I cast myself as Gwendolen, not Cecily. I’m not sure if that reveals anything significant?!
I’m thrilled to be working with Michael Gow again after he directed me as Meg in his Away in 2006. He creates a very relaxed rehearsal space, a good balance of intellectual inquiry and an open, safe place to play and explore. And I also can’t wait to play on the stunning set that Robert Kemp has designed and that Jo Currey is lighting.
I sneaked along to the design presentation back in July, because I’d been so eagerly anticipating this show! I’m especially excited about the gorgeous and lavish costumes Robert has created. His design sketches are the fabulous images on the poster and flyers for the show.
I’m going to relish working with my friend Georgina Symes again (we did Away and The Female of the Species together). She constantly inspires me and I suspect we will have some wickedly delicious fun with our roles as Gwendolen and Cecily.
I’m also really looking forward to working with six other actors I’ve never had the opportunity to work with before, Paul Bishop, Bryan Probets, Jane Harders, Penny Everingham, Leo Wockner and Tim Dashwood, all of whom I’ve admired from afar in various productions. I always learn a great deal through observation of my peers in rehearsal and in working with them on stage.
And I get to play opposite Paul Bishop (he plays Algernon to my Cecily), who I had a crush on when I was at school! Should I say that?!
So much of the play is about love and crushes. Do you think romance has gotten any easier since Wilde’s era?
It seems easy to say that romance has become harder because we have less structure to it today; the rules and etiquette of Wilde’s era have largely become obsolete. However, I think it would’ve been extremely difficult for many people to operate within the rigid confines of those past ‘accepted behaviours’, as Oscar Wilde himself did. Romance will always be challenging, because I believe love is the most powerful emotion, yet there is little logic to it, and extremes seem implicit. Hopefully the hard times are balanced or surpassed by the high times!
What inspires you as an actor?
The infinite kaleidoscope of emotions, the vast scope of movement and language, words, words, words – Shakespeare, art, music, people, humanity, comedy, tragedy, love, injustice, history. And the rest.
What do you do when you need inspiration?
Breathe.
What do you love about what you do?
I’m in it for the money! (kidding). I love everything about it, except that I don’t get to do it all the time.
What do you want to achieve through acting?
When I was 15-years-old, I saw Queensland Theatre Company’s production of Romeo and Juliet, with Paul Bishop as Romeo and Veronica Neave as Juliet, and was so profoundly moved by it that I decided to aspire to do the same for others, through theatre.
I believe in the value of ‘pure entertainment’ in society, but I also think it’s important to challenge and provoke and inspire audiences, to reflect upon ourselves by “holding the mirror up to nature”, also to investigate and transform the conventions of theatre itself (like in the amazing production of Anatomy Titus Fall of Rome!).
I became very interested in political and community theatre during my first degree in theatre studies at QUT; I researched Liberation Theatre in Indonesia, and studied the work of Augusto Boal through the Theatre of the Oppressed. I passionately believe in the power of theatre to affect positive change at a grassroots level.
Of course, as an actor, I also hope to entertain at a very fundamental level. To make people laugh, to have a joyful, powerful or moving evening (or matinee) at the theatre.
Oh, and I’d like to achieve a living from it too!
The Importance of Being Earnest is on at QPAC's Playhouse from 13 October to 1 November 2008.
Read Katherine Lyall-Watson's review of The Importance of Being Earnest.
